A New Beginning
by Monday Addams
Summary: Basically this is a story I started a long time ago to tie things up after "The Beast Within." It's winter break! If anyone's still reading, shall I continue?
1. Chapter 1

I'm uploadint this story for the final time, I decided to rework most of my existing material since it's so old. My goal will be to finish by the end of summer. (If there's even anyone out there still reading these)

Standard disclaimer - Any characters, events, ideas, etc., that you recognize from Poltergeist: the Lecacy, obviously don't belong to me.

**A New Beginning**

By Monday Addams

"_Since the San Francisco house was recently destroyed, London has stationed us in the Boston House. We were asked to record the events leading up to this moment._

_It started when evil forces in the portal began to take over the house, attempting to release the demon from the sepulchers. They distracted Derek with the Testament of Golgotha, and sabotaged our entire network to keep us out of the way. After finishing the translation, Derek lured us out of the house so he could face the demons alone. Then, the explosion . . . 48 packs of C-4, strategically placed so that nothing could survive._

_We watched by the griffin as our home became engulfed in flames. Our greatest concern was the man who sacrificed his life to save us and protect the world from darkness. Fighting evil was his lifelong conviction, one he and many others have died for. I only hope that I can have the same courage if faced with the same situation. _

_Now, at Derek's request the burden of being precept has fallen to me. London is sending two new members later today, so we can begin taking cases this week . . ."_

Nick closed his journal and slid it into the top drawer of the desk. The new members wouldn't arrive for another few hours, so he decided to take a long run to clear his head.

Rachel walked into the control room where Alex sat, working on a computer. "Have you seen Nick?"

"Uh . . . " Alex paused, "No, I thought he was working in his office?"

"I just checked."

Alex shook her head and stood up from the desk. "I wish he wouldn't do this, especially now."

"Hey how's everything goin'?" Nick suddenly appeared at the opposite side of the room drenched in sweat.

"How's everything goin'? You'd know that if you were in your office." Rachel exclaimed, "We've been looking all over for you . . . you can't just run off whenever you want! You're the precept now . . ."

"Hey, I didn't ask for the 'promotion' . . . I never _wanted_ to be the precept . . . In fact, I think it sucks! . . .it's not like I even want to be here!" Nick quickly ran back out the door.

"You probably shouldn't be that hard on him Rach, he's been through a lot. This foundation is the only thing he thinks he can rely on, and now everything's falling apart. We've moved across the country into a new house, Derek is dead, and now he's the precept."

"I know . . . but he needs to accept his new role here along with the responsibilities it carries." She glanced at the door and left the room.

"This is going to be an impossible week." Alex murmured, returning to her work.

Nick lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling. "Why did you have to go back in the house? . . . Why do I have to be precept? . . . Why did we all have to move to Boston? . . ." He turned on his side and opened the drawer of the side table and pulled out his 35 mm. He ran his hand along the cold metal. . . .

"Hey Nick . . . where are ya?"

He quickly concealed the weapon, he was tired of Rachel being on his case and if she found out he had his gun out with Kat around, she might decide to use it on him.

He heard a knock on his bedroom door, "Nick, are you in there?"

He opened the door, smiling for the first time that week. "Yeah I'm here."

"Good, wanna eat some ice-cream with me?"

"Yeah, sounds good." As they reached the kitchen and started to get out the bowls and ice cream, the phone started to ring. "Nick." Alex shouted.

"What's the problem?" Nick sat the bowls down and turned around. Before he could leave the room, Alex was standing in the doorway.

"That was the two new members. They said the airport is packed and it'd take them a while to get a cab."

"What a bummer." He replied sarcastically. Kat handed him the ice-cream scooper, as he turned back to the counter.

"Yeah, that's why I told them you'd be right over to pick them up."

Nick exhaled loudly as he handed Kat a bowl of ice cream. "Looks like I'll have to take a rain check kiddo."

"Nick didn't seem too happy when he left. I hope he's not sore about this morning anymore." Rachel said as she walked into the den and sat down next to Alex.

"He wasn't happy when I told him he needed to go pick up the new members. . .I mean, if his attitude toward new people isn't bad enough. . ." Alex was interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching.

Nick remained in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest as the new members entered the room. "Hi, my name is Rachel Corrigan and this is Alex Moreau." She stood up politely and offered the two new members a seat.

"I'm Ryan, good to meet you," the man responded. He was in his early 30s, with short blonde hair.

"And my name is Shelby," the young woman added. She was only in her early twenties, with long brown hair and hazel eyes. She was chosen to join the house because of her extensive training in archaeology and her father's ties to the precept of the Montreal House.

Nick stared spitefully at Rachel as she and Alex politely conversed with their new colleagues. After a few more minutes of their uninteresting chatter he excused himself and headed for his room.

In his bed, Nick restlessly shifted again, it was almost two in the morning, but sleep seemed impossible. Visions of his past overflowed his mind . . . Dad . . . Philip . . . Jimmy . . . Julia . . . Kristen . . . Derek . . . he willed them away but it was useless. He climbed out of bed, threw on his jeans and a sweater and trudged down to the garage where his precious mustang was parked. Luckily, fearing the worst on the night of the explosion, he had moved his car down by the ferry. He ran the tips of his fingers along the edge of the hood, the red paint glimmered in the pale light of the night. A drive would definitely get his mind off things.

He'd been driving for a couple of hours when his cell phone rang. "Perfect, just when I get my mind off things, Alex and Rachel have to check on me." He picked up the phone and raised it to his ear. "What? I'm really not in the mood . . . "

"Please listen to me carefully. This conversation must remain confidential; no one can know I have contacted you. Do you understand?" A man's voice demanded.

"Who are you?"

"I cannot reveal my name at this time, but I have very important information for you."

"Important information, about what?"

"It concerns The Legacy."

"WHAT W-what are you talking about?" The young man tensed up at the name of the secret organization, jerking the steering wheel and sending the car into a fish-tail, but he quickly composed himself. "What is The Legacy? What important information are you talking about?"

"I can't tell you, but I know more than you think. You are in danger Nick . . . For now, I must go. I will try to contact you later . . . "

"Hey, wait a minute, tell me something. Don't go yet." It was useless, the other man had already hung up. Nick closed the phone and threw it into the passenger seat. "You've gotta be kidding me," he mumbled to himself, "Who is this guy? Information about the legacy . . ." He glanced down at the clock, "Guess I'll figure it out later, right now I gotta get back before anyone wakes up."

It was around six when Nick returned to the mansion. He ascended the stairs to the second floor where the other members remained asleep. As he entered the room, he threw his sweater on the bed and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

The hot water eased his mind, forcing out every rancid thought. By the time the hot water ran out everyone else in the house was already up.

Voices filled the kitchen as the associates sat around the table for breakfast.

"Nick seemed, well . . . remote last night. Is he always like that?" Shelby asked.

"Nick just has a lot on his mind." Alex assured "Give him some space for a while."

"Really!" A male voice interrupted from the hall. "So you think you know what my problem is?" Nick stalked over to the counter and poured a cup of coffee. Then, he quickly turned to face Alex, "Hey, maybe you're right . . . but then maybe I'm actually going insane and you just don't know it."

Rachel stood up and slowly approached him "Nick . . . give it a rest. We're all grief-stricken from losing Derek, but you're way out of line . . ."

"I'm outta here." Nick attempted to leave the room but Rachel was blocking the doorway. "Come on Rachel."

"What's going on with you?"

"You're the shrink. You figure it out." Rachel stepped to the side and Nick charged through the door.

Nick sat in his office staring blankly at the wall in front of him. He sighed as he pulled out his journal laying it on the desk in front of him. As he opened to the page where he had previously left off he noticed a small slip of paper sticking out of the top so he pulled it out and unfolded it . . .

_Stay strong Nick, being a precept_

_is hard but you must be their_

_leader. Everything will be okay._

His mind whirled, "Who wrote this . . . "The handwriting was vaguely familiar. "It can't be possible. That person who called last night . . . Who is he?" Nick sank back in his chair putting his face in his hands. "Philip . . . I need to talk to him. He'll understand. Maybe he can help me figure things out."

Philip stood by the altar when Nick entered the room. His footsteps echoed as he walked down the aisle toward the young priest. Philip turned around expecting to see a member of the congregation. "Nick. It's good to see you. I heard about everything. How are you holding up?"

"I don't know. Can we talk?"

"Sure, let's go outside." Nick nodded and followed the priest out the door into a beautiful garden. They strolled around the pathways for a few minutes before Philip asked what was going on. Nick explained everything starting with the move to Boston up to the strange phone call and the note.

"Have you told anybody else about all this?" Philip asked when Nick was done.

"No, the situation at the house has been . . . well, tense."

Philip nodded understandingly, even though he knew that Nick probably wasn't doing much to ease the tension back home.

"See, Philip, I was really hoping, that with everything that had happened recently . . ." He trailed off.

"That I'd change my mind about my calling and come back to the Legacy and help, right?"

"Well, yeah. I know we've had our disagreements, but . . ."

"Nick, I left the Legacy because this is what I believed in. I felt they needed me more here, in the church, than in the Legacy. And . . ."

"Yeah yeah, I get it." Nick started to walk away but Philip stopped him.

"You never let anyone finish do you? Some things will never change. But, as I was going to say, some things do." He sighed, and then smirked at the other young man's befuddled expression. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"What? You mean you're really coming back." Nick took a step back toward Philip who grinned and nodded. The two men embraced quickly before Nick returned to his car.

To Be Continued . . .

Chapter 2 will be uploaded as soon as I correct it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

That evening, the tension in the house still wasn't any better, but the current head of the London house had called for a conference. Nick entered the control room at the last possible minute, to avoid any more confrontations before the meeting began.

"Nice of you to join us Mr. Boyle," said the man on the large screen at the front of the room. "Before we get down to business, is there anything else we need to address? I realize that this is still a difficult time for most of you, even the new members having to join an already established group, but in this line of work there is not always time to fully address these matters . . ."

The room fell silent, as the members looked around to see if anyone would speak. By this point they all questioned Nick's ability to effectively lead the house, but also realized that calling him out in front of the head of the London house could only serve to make matters worse. Nick spoke up, "maybe it would just be best if we get down to work."

"Fine, Mr. Boyle, since we have not had any members in the Boston area since the Boston house fell to the darkside, there are a number of cases that need attention. The first, we would like you to concentrate on involves a house in the Dorchester neighborhood. About 10 years ago, the family moved out of the house following the disappearance of a young girl. Since then there have been numerous reports surrounding unexplainable events at the house including two other disappearances over the last decade. The activity seems to have peaked recently, so I want you to look into the house and see if these disappearances are related and determine if there is any danger _before_ anything else happens. We also have another case of an apparition at Chestnut Hills Cemetery; many of the local residents that visit the cemetery are claiming to see the image of the Virgin Mary. You will receive all of the reports and files that you need to begin the investigation by morning." The man on the screen nodded and the camera immediately switched off.

Nick was also ready to end the meeting, "Well without that additional information we can't really do anything until morning, so let's meet in the library first thing tomorrow and we'll get started ton these cases."

That night, Nick didn't even feel like trying to sleep, after restlessly looking around the office, he sat down and stared at his Precepts ring. Suddenly he heard a thud like something had shifted in one of the desk drawers. He opened a couple of drawers, and then in the bottom drawer he found a device like the one Derek used to open the tunnels below the San Francisco house. His curiosity stirring, he decided exploring in the basement could be interesting and would help to get his mind off everything else.

Generally, the basement resembled that of the San Francisco house – boxes and old artifacts stacked up everywhere. Stumbling around, he tripped over a box, and nearly knocked over a stack of old crates. He managed to keep them from falling and hoped that the noise hadn't woken up any of the other members of the house. The young man's senses ran wild as he carefully scanned each wall until his eyes fell upon a small indent in the wall. . He slipped the device around his fingers and over his precepts ring, and inserted it into the indent, he heard something engage, and he turned his wrist to open the secret door. The wall in front of him immediately moved aside to reveal a long hallway cloaked in darkness. He looked for some sort of light source, and quickly wished he had brought a flashlight. He began to move slowly through the darkness of the tunnel, it was damp and cold, but he enjoyed the feeling it gave him. By now the tunnels were pitch black, he strained to make out any image in the darkness, and then he stumbled over something in the path. He got back on his feet but felt cloth under his right hand. He picked it up and decided to take it back with him as he headed back upstairs. When he reached his room, exhaustion finally caught up with him and for the first time in weeks, he fell asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.

The next morning the group gathered around the table in the library. This time, Nick was actually sitting at the head of the table in front of a pile of folders and papers before the rest of the group began to trickle in. The new members, Shelby and Ryan were the first to arrive, and then Rachel and Alex also joined the group. The room was mostly silent at first, as if everyone feared angering the young precept again. Nick shuffled through a few more papers before speaking, "Looks like we have all of the initial information here to begin the investigation, but we're just waiting on one more person before we get started." Everyone looked around the room perplexed as to who could be missing and just then Philip walked into the room. He had barely entered the room when Alex sprang from her seat "Philip!" and ran to hug him. Rachel wasn't far behind. Before anyone could say anything, Nick stood from his seat, "Ryan and Shelby, I'd like to introduce Philip Callahan, he also served with us at the San Francisco house." Nick and Philip quickly hugged before Nick continued the introduction, "Philip these are our new members Shelby Benoit and Ryan Morrison." The new members glanced at one another as they stood up to greet Philip.

"Philip Callahan," Ryan said, "I though you left the Legacy years ago . . . "

"Well, as Derek would say, he was always with us in spirit." Nick retorted. When Philip left the Legacy, Nick had always felt betrayed, but since then he had come to understand that Philip's needs were not always in line with the mission of the Legacy. Now, however, Nick was very glad to have his comrade back.

"But as I recall Legacy rules state that A Legacy member who leaves the house can never return." Shelby stated, sounded very much like a new initiate.

"As I said his spirit never really left, and as you'll learn sometimes as a Legacy member not every situation fits into a concrete set of rules." Stopping very short of just saying rules are meant to be broken, Nick was actually beginning to sound like Precept of the house. Rachel and Alex were quite impressed, but the new members were still obviously skeptical of his ability to lead, and his apparent defiance of Legacy rules only added to their doubts. "Now," Nick interjected, "Let's get on with the business at hand, as Mr. Endres informed us last night there have been some mysterious disappearances linked with a certain house in Dorchester. Most of our work will be concentrated on this case since there are missing children involved. Shelby I'd like for you to begin looking through these files, and see if you can find any correlations with old newspaper articles. We need to find out if this is a recent development or if there is a history of similar occurrences in this location. Rachel I would like for you to begin doing research on the background of the families involved, see if there is anything in their personal lives that we are missing. Philip and I will begin looking through Legacy database and the library here to see if we can find any similar stories and determine how to proceed. As for the other case, for now, Alex I would like for you to take the lead on it, because you've dealt with many similar cases in San Francisco, and Ryan I would like you to help her in any way you can. Since the object of this case doesn't seem to pose any threat, however, we may also need your help on the Dorchester case later."

Everyone began looking through the set of files that Nick handed to each of them, then Alex stood up "Well, I guess we should get to work then." Rachel, also ready to dig into the work, couldn't hide a small smile. She was actually quite impressed with Nick's change in attitude and the leadership role he undertook in spite of the catastrophe yesterday. As Nick walked out of the room, with Philip close behind, the rest of the group paused for a minute, almost wondering why the ever questioned the young man's ability, but the day was not over and there was a lot of work to be done.

Later in the library, Nick is sitting at a large table staring at an old legacy journal open in front of him. Philip is looking through a couple of old journals on witchcraft and interdimensional portals. "You know, this would be a lot easier if the cause of these '_disappearances_' was narrowed down, I mean anything could be involved here, witchcraft, some kinda portal or rift, the work of a demon, or a cult . . . Nick?" The other man continued to stare at the journal in front of him. "Interesting read, or is your mind even on this case?"

"What? Yeah. Sorry, . . . did you say something? I was just reading about . . . " he looked back at the Journal as Philip picked it up.

"Vampires?" Philip questioned. "Do you really think vampires are involved, or were you more lost in your thought that lost in your reading? Never mind, since you didn't know _what _ you were reading, I know the answer to that."

"Don't start." Nick moaned, picking up another book. "Now what were you saying?" Philip started to repeat what he said, but figured it was mostly useless.

"Nick, are you alright?" Philip sat down next to his friend, with a genuinely concerned expression.

"Am I supposed to be?" he responded dryly.

"No," Philip seemed more understanding than the other members had been, "I don't think any of us really are, but I can understand how it's harder for you. Derek was the leader, we all looked up to him, and he had a way of . . . keeping us all going, I guess. And now everyone expects you to be that leader. They're looking to you to pick up where Derek left off, that's a big burden for someone who's still mourning his friend."

"Maybe I'm not cut out for this, ya' know? I left the SEALs because I wasn't sure any more about the man watching my back, and now I'm not so sure about it here either . . . present company excluded," he chuckled, but quickly became serious again. "Something just feels off, not just Derek's death, just all around ya know?"

"Yeah, Nick, I do. I felt the same way recently, that's why I decided to come back. I thought I could make more of a difference in the church, and look what happened there. . . and here . . . maybe you were right all along and I never should have left . . ."

"Wait, you didn't come back because you felt guilty, like you could have done something about Derek's death if you were there . . ." Nick's voice went from sympathy to almost defensive, "I was there and I did everthing I could, I should have known he'd sucker us out of the house . . ."

"_Nick_! That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying if I was there I would have done a better job than you or even that I would have done something different. I just don't know where God expects me to go to make a difference. Or if I can make a difference, but I just feel like I _should_ be here now, like there's something more to this whole puzzle, something missing that I can't quite put my finger on."

Just then Rachel entered the room. "Have you found anything useful."

Philip jumped in "not really, it'd be more helpful if we had more of an idea what we're dealing with. I mean there could be a thousand explanations, we haven't seen the house, nor do we know if it's even safe to go there, and we only have a vague idea regarding the people who disappeared there. . . "

"Well maybe this will help," she said holding up a file of papers. "I've been doing as much background research as I can on the family who used to be there. Everything seems normal up until they moved into that house, then things start to get a little wacky. The father, Mark Stears, was a successful businessman, and his wife was a teacher, both very respected. Their daughter, however, this Elaine, apparently started to run with the wrong crowd, at first it seemed like normal teenager stuff . . . _but_ it seems there was more than that. Drinking, lying, flunking out of classes, but one teacher caught her with occult drawings on her notebooks, and another brought one of her essays to the attention of the school board. Apparently, it dealt with necromancy. On top of that her High School boyfriend Garret Coleman is being institutionalized, while another of their friends is in prison for murder." Rachel laid the folder of papers on the table in front of them. Nick opened it to find some of the girl's school record detailing some of the markings found on her belongings.

"What were the circumstances surrounding the murder charges?" Philip asked.

"So far, I haven't been able to narrow it down with any certainty, most of the details of the crime seem to have been hidden from the press."

"Suspicious . . ." Nick said, "and what about the family now?"

"Also unclear, it's almost like they went off the grid after they moved. There are records of them in Columbus, Ohio for almost 6 months after the move, but then nothing. "

"So, it seems like whatever we're dealing with could be more about the family than about the house?"

"Well yeah," Philip interjected, "but what about the more recent disturbances, she's still not the only one to go missing from that house."

Nick raised his eyebrows and nodded, "yeah . . ." he looked around at the papers and then back at Rachel, "have you managed to find any connections there?"

Rachel shook her head, "No, you wouldn't believe what I had to do to get this . . ."

"Alright, well keep on it, and we'll see if these symbols help us narrow things down." Rachel nodded and left the room, and Nick handed the folder to Philip. "So, do you recognize any of those?"

"A few, it would have been a bit more helpful to know the context she was using them in, how they were arranged . . . but it's more than we had before." Philip sat down at the table to figure out the symbols, while Nick went back to looking through journals.

Later that evening Philip sat at the desk in his new bedroom as he began his new journal as a full Legacy member once again. It was very late, he and Nick had just finished up in the library, and everyone else was already in bed. Philip's writing was interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the hallway. He looked out to see who it was "Well Nick, isn't it late for the precept to be sneaking around?" he whispered.

Ick turned and shrugged, "Can't really sleep lately, so I figured some spelunking was in order." He waved the flashlight he held in his right hand.

"Spelunking? . . ."

"Yeah, I found some tunnels under the house," he held up the key device. "Interested in seeing what's down there?"

Philip shrugged, deciding to join in on the adventure rather than leave Nick to get into trouble alone.

In the tunnels once again, they made their way through the darkened hallway, which seemed endless. With the light of the flashlight Nick noticed a plank of wood in the middle of the tunnel where he fell the night before. There was no other wood in the area, so he picked it up to see where it might have come from.

"Looks like something off an old crate," Philip said, "is it important."

Nick laughed, "Only in that it got the best of me last night." He put the wood back down, carefully placing it against the wall to prevent any future accidents. They continued down the hallway until they came to a stair well concealed in darkness. Carefully theyhe descended the stairs to the water-covered floor at the bottom. The water quickly soaked through their shoes making the tunnel feel frigid. At the end of the tunnel stood a heavy metal door. The dampness in the air had rusted the hinges making it hard to open, but succeeding the young men found a well-kept room full of old artifacts, and a few candles. "Looks like a storage area . . . like in San Francisco. . ." He browsed through a couple of boxes, but didn't see anything he recognized enough to really be interested in. Towards the back of the room, there was a large metal filing cabinet. Nick began going through the drawers. When he opened the bottom drawer, something seemed very off, it looked much deeper from the exterior than the actual drawer. "Hey Phil, check this out, I think this drawer has a false bottom. They began carefully removing papers and artifacts from the drawer, and Nick managed to pry up the false bottom. Inside they found some small cardboard tubes. Nick picked one up and began to open it.

"Are you sure you want to do that?," Philip asked, "these aren't really stable conditions and there might be something fragile in there."

"True, but even I know you shouldn't keep fragile old documents in tubes. They're just asking for trouble." He pulled out the roll of paper and carefully unrolled it. The paper seemed fairly new, so it unrolled quite easily. "It looks like blueprints . . ."

Philip moved beside Nick to get a better look. "Of what?"

"I'd say it's these tunnels . . ." He turned to orient the paper with the room, "if so . . . there should be a passage behind that cabinet . . ." Nick smirked and looked at his friend.

"Nick . . . don't you think we've wasted enough time down here? We do have a case to work on and we need sleep." Philip argued, although he knew it was futile. Nick was already trying to move the file cabinet, so instead of wasting time with argument, he decided to help the other man, and between the two of them they easily moved the large cabinet out of the way. "Well, I guess that was easier than I expected." In the next room they found a small bed, and a workstation with an old computer.

"Wow," Nick stated as he walked over to the computer. "Now this is an ancient artifact . . .I wonder if it still even works . . ."

"Well, if it does, I'm sure you'll fix that shortly." Philip laughed as he looked around the other side of the room.

"Riiiight, and what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Nick chuckled, there was a lamp next to the computer, so he tried to turn it on. "Well, no danger there, it doesn't even look like this room is getting electric." He then turned his attention to the desk drawers, which was also futile because they were all locked. "Well, you finding anything over there Phil?"

"Yeah, a nice comfy bed, like the ones we should be sleeping in right now."

Nick turned to see Philip relaxing on the bed. "You're always the party pooper, let's get back upstairs before you fall asleep down here old man." He joked, picking up the blueprints and smacking Philip on the leg.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

As soon as the young men got up stairs to their rooms, Alex emerged from Nick's office. "Where have you two been? Rachel and I have been looking all over for you." Philip and Nick looked at each other but before they could say anything, Alex continued. "We just got heard from the London House, they intercepted a police report about the house we're investigating in Dorchester. Apparently a group of boys went there earlier this evening on some kind of dare, and one of them got separated from the group and has disappeared."

Nick nodded, but remained skeptical about the situation. "Is it possible it's just some kind of misunderstanding? It has only been a couple of hours, and . . ."

"That's what Rachel thought," Alex interjected, she continued talking as she turned and rushed back to the control room. "But, when the officers went to investigate, and see if they could find the boy hiding somewhere in the house, one of them disappeared as well."

"So I guess that rules out coincidence . . ." Nick said.

The members all gathered in the control room to go over the new police reports, and look for new information. "Looks like it's going to be a long night," Nick said.

By the next morning, the team wasn't any closer to getting an answer, so Nick decided that he and Philip should go talk to the officer in charge of the case, and sent Rachel and Shelby to talk to the family of the missing boy. At the police office, they didn't really get anything but a run-around. Unfortunately, neither Philip or Nick really had any connections at this department, and most of the officers refused to give any information on an ongoing case to a private organization. What really surprised the men was the reaction of the officers when asked about the disappearance of two of their own. Either the group was extremely good at keeping such things on the down-low or something fishy was going on. Nick decided to give up on this goose chase and called Alex to see if she could pull up some additional information on the missing officers.

"Apparently both men were single and neither had family in the area." She reported.

"Of course not," Nick quipped. "Am I the only one getting a suspicious feeling about all of this, it just seems too neat. All of the answers are either given to us or the loose ends are just tied up too neatly."

"Don't you think it's a little early in the game to play the conspiracy card Nick?"

"Well, what's your explanation, Alex? Give me something else to go on." But Alex couldn't, aside from the files sent by the London house nothing fit together and there wasn't really anything else to go on. "This is crazy, we're going to take a look at the house for ourselves." He hung up the phone before Alex could protest, but he couldn't so easily cut off Philip.

"Nick . . . do you really think that's the wisest idea?" Philip Questioned

"Okay, so maybe not, but I can't think of a better one right now."

"What about starting with the neighbors?"

Nick smirked and nodded, "Guess that's why I wanted you to come back. . . So, where exactly is this house?"

Phillip looked a little puzzled, "Have you actually read the file at all?"

"Yeah."

Phillip tilted his head and continued to look at Nick.

Nick glanced over from the driver's seat. "Well I have, just . . ." his voice grew much quieter. "You know I've got a lot of other stuff on my mind."

Philip shook his head and gave Nick directions to the house, he also started going over some of the other information in the file. "You really mean to tell me you led that entire meeting without knowing any of this?" He questioned after a few minutes.

"Yeah. . ." Nick smirked, "but the rest of the team doesn't need to know that. I figured if I didn't at least act like a precept then things would just get worse so . . ." Nick shrugged, and glanced over at his passenger.

Philip chuckled and continued reading from the file. Suddenly Philip glanced up realizing where they were," Turn left here. As Nick guided the car around the corner, he caught a glimpse of his precepts ring, and sadness washed over him again. He tried to hide his emotion as Philip pointed out the Stears' house. Nick parked in front of the house and turned off the car, and then just sat there, silent, staring ahead. There weren't a lot of houses in this part of the neighborhood, but the house across the street looked well lived in. Nick sighed, he didn't really know what to say, or even if he had anything to say. Both men got out of the car and walked to the door, Nick rang the doorbell and looked at his colleague, "Maybe you should do the talking." Philip nodded and gave him a sympathetic smile. Just then, an elderly lady appeared at the door.

"Can I help you boys?" she asked.

"Yes, Mrs. Richardson?" Philip asked noticing the name on the mailbox. The woman nodded so he continued, "we're looking into the disappearance of a young girl who used to live in that house across the street, we were told she disappeared about 10 years ago, and another boy disappeared last night."

Mrs. Stears looked quizzically at the young men, "are you police?, " she asked.

Nick pulled out a business card, "We're with the Luna Foundation, ma'am. My name is Nick Boyle, and this is Philip Callahan."

"Philip Callahan . . ._Father_ Philip Callahan?" She looked Philip over.

It seemed like a good way to get things rolling so Philip didn't want to take the time to tell her he was leaving the churc. "Yes ma'am, would you mind if we came in to talk?" Philip asked.

"Certainly," She opened the door, "I don't know much about this Luna Foundation, but my niece attends your church, Father Callahan."

"That's good to hear, Mrs. Richar . . ."

She cut him short, "now now, please call me Betty," she directed them into the living room, and pointed to her husband asleep in the chair, "and this is my husband Louis." Then she smacked the man on the shoulder, "wake up dear, we have guests!" Her husband riled and looked surprised at the two young men standing in his living room. "They want to know about our neighbors from across the street, apparently one of them disappeared. Is that right?" she asked looking back at the men and motioned for them to sit down on the couch.

"Well yes," Philip said, "but we were hoping that you could tell us more about it."

"Well how are we to know?" Louis asked, "The Stears correct? We haven't seen or talked to them since they moved away about ten years ago. . ."

Nick and Philip glanced at one another. Nick was confused, "didn't their daughter disappear _before_ they moved? Her name was . . ."

"Elaine?" Betty interjected. Nick nodded. "Oh a devilish little teenager that one was . . . oh, sorry Father, I just mean she was always mischief of this sort or that, nothing terrible I mean, just teenager stuff. I was never aware of anything happening to her though, in fact, I remember saying good-bye to her on the morning her and the family left. Oh, I do hope nothing happened to her after that!"

Neither Philip or Nick really knew how to respond to this information. "Would you gentlemen like something to drink?" Betty asked.

"No thanks ma'am," Nick replied, "would you mind telling us a bit more about the Stears, did anything ever seem off, anything strange seem to happen around them? Anything you can tell us would be quite helpful."

Betty looked at her husband and shrugged, he also shook his head, "They seemed like any other family these days if you ask me." He replied, "Mr. Stears, Mark was his name, he worked for . . . oh, for some little company downtown. He was a salesman. And his wife Nancy was a teacher at the elementary school nearby. Elaine, well as Betty said she was basically a typical teenager. Came home once with blue hair, that one did." He and Betty both chuckled. "There was also a younger boy, Charlie, he was in middle school when they moved, now he was a real smart one. Always reading and asking questions about everything . . . Then, suddenly they were moving out, believe they said they were going west, someone in Ohio maybe, or Iowa, what's the difference . . .All in all they were good neighbors, always helpful and nice, right Betty?" She smiled warmly and nodded.

"Well," Philip sighed, "it looks like we've had some misinformation, thank you both for your time. Have a great evening."

"Oh, no problem, are you sure you wouldn't like something to drink before you leave?"

"Yes ma'am," Nick replied. "Thanks again for your time, but we'll have to get back." They excused themselves, and walked quietly back to the car. "Well what do you think now? They didn't exactly seem senile, but yet again nothing is matching up with the information we have." Nick asked as he started the car.

"Maybe we should have Rachel do some more digging."

"Or maybe we should do some more digging ourselves. If no one actually disappeared there, what's the danger?"

"Well the girl may not have disappeared there, but what about the more recent events? Maybe they are real, and just triggered a connection within the community to a family that packed up and left. . . "

"I still think we need to see this house."

Philip shrugged, it wouldn't – by far, be the worst thing they had ever walked into, and Nick had a point, the only way to figure out if there was something going on with the house was to see if anything strange was going on with the house itself. It seemed like a completely different world across the street, the old Stears house had been abandoned for nearly ten years, since the family moved out. It was around noon, but the sky was dark, like a storm was about to roll in. Nick and Philip gathered a few things out of the trunk of the car and entered the house. Structurally the building seemed to be sound, but the inside looked even more broken down than the outside – if that seemed possible. They each pulled out some instruments, and began walking around the first floor looking for signs of anything strange. After an uneventful search of the first floor, they headed up the stairs to the second when suddenly the men were caught off guard by the sound of Nick's cell phone. He answered and immediately heard Rachel's voice, "Hey Nick, where are you?"

"Boston . . ." He slightly wanted to avoid telling her they were in the house.

This time her voice sounded a little annoyed, "Can you be a little more specific?"

"Well, I am currently standing on a flight of stairs. . ."

"_Nic_ . . ."

"Alright, alright, we're taking a look around the house, but don't worry we're being careful. We brought some instruments with us and we're seeing if we can detect any anomalies."

"Oh, well why didn't you just say that?" Nick pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it shocked, before quickly returning it to hear what else she had to say. "I had to bring Kat to the local Library to get some things for school, so I've been making use of their resources, I haven't found much about the families' personal lives on the public databases but I have found a few local stories about the house, and one where Mr. Stears won a local award for philanthropy. But strangely nothing appears regarding the girl's disappearance. . .th . . ." Just as Rachel started to speak again, there was a crackle of static and the phone went dead. He looked up expecting Philip to be standing nearby, but no one was there.

He figured the other man had continued searching the bedrooms, "Philip?" he began looking in each of the rooms, but when his friend didn't respond, Nick began to feel very uneasy. He pushed a couple of buttons on his phone to call Rachel, but – NO SERVICE – appeared on the screen. He called out for Philip again, but there was still no answer and all of the rooms were empty. Aside from his own heartbeat, the house was completely silent. He stood there for a few moments, and then was shocked back into reality by his phone ringing again. –Unknown Caller– flashed on the screen. He pressed talk, and lifted the phone to his ear, but couldn't produce any words.

"Nick!" he heard the same voice from the night in his car, "Are you there?"

"Yeah, you wanna tell me why you keep calling me?" The young man responded.

The other voice sounded harsh, "I told you that you're in danger. I know you've been assigned to investigate a house in Boston, and you need to stay away from it."

"Or what?" The young man continued looking through the bedroom doors and closets, but there was nothing, Philip couldn't have gone anywhere else, because Nick had been standing on the stairs the whole time.

"Why can't you just do as I say? . . ." the other man's voice grew harsher with the sound of annoyance, "you're there right now aren't you?"

"Can you just give me a straight answer and tell me what's going on? Where's Philip?"

"Philip? Was he in the house with you? GET OUT NOW! If you want to save your friend, you can't do it from where he is. GET OUT!" The phone went dead again as Nick descended the stairs. When he got back to his car, he stopped to stare at the windows of the house, hoping to see some movement from the upstairs rooms, but there was nothing. As he sat down in his car, he realized how bright it was outside. It had been so cloudy when they arrived at the house, he thought for sure a storm was coming, but now there wasn't a cloud in the sky. As he turned the ignition key, his phone rang again. He sighed as he picked it up. "Just one break, can't I catch just one break . . ." It was Rachel again, he put the phone to his ear, "Rach . . ."

"Nick! I've been trying to call you back, what happened?"

Nick couldn't find the words to answer. "They got him . . ." Was all he could say.

"Nick what do you mean? Philip? I thought he was right there with you. . ."

"So did I, and he was, he was standing right there when we were talking, but when the phone cut out, I looked up and he was gone."

"Get out of the house Nick."

"Already did . . . I'm in the driveway. . . He was right there Rachel, I didn't see or hear anything."

***Well the story's been getting hits, so I'll continue. I'll try to add a chapter a week until the story is finished, who knows when that will be, the characters haven't really told me that yet. Again, it's been a long time since I've done any writing of this sort so I hope it's all coming together as it should. Comments and suggestions are welcome, but as long as I have readers I'll continue.


	4. Chapter 4

When Nick got back to the house, Rachel was waiting for him near the front entrance. He was already flipping out and ranting about Philip and the house. He could feel everything crashing down on him again. Despite their disagreements in the past, Philip was the only person that Nick felt he could talk to lately. At least with his old friend around he felt like he could pretend things were okay. Rachel finally managed to calm him down, but they needed to meet with everyone and discuss what was going on. As he followed Rachel to the library, the bitter feelings welled up inside of him again. He understood that Rachel and Alex were both dealing with the loss of Derek in their own ways, but to him it didn't excuse them from being so harsh. Nick felt alien to the whole group.

As soon as they entered the room, Ryan started verbally attacking Nick. "Why the hell would you go in that house to begin with? I can't even begin to understand why they'd make an impulsive irresponsible person like you the precept of this house."

"If you want to question my leadership, go ahead. In case you don't remember I didn't ask for this responsibility. Oh, right you weren't there . . . in San Francisco. Where we all watched our friend, mentor, and leader die. And we were all helpless to do anything about it." Nick took off his ring and threw it into the center of the table before he stormed out of the room.

Surprising to everyone Rachel began defending Nick and Derek's decision. "We may not have always understood or agreed with Derek's decisions" she glanced at Alex for backup, "but in the end he always knew what was best for us. He believed in Nick, despite Nick's downfalls, he knew this is what we needed and I think we should respect his wishes and be more supportive."

"Weren't you just questioning him the other night? And if Derek is so keen why is he dead?"

From the look on Alex's face that comment hit her especially hard. "And what about Julia?" Ryan continued.

"That was years ago, a hell of a thing to bring up now!" Rachel could see the pain on Alex's face turning into rage. "You weren't there, just like Nick said. You don't know what happened, and even so what makes you think that you're so superior to us that you could have handled things better. As a member of the Legacy I'd expect you to show some respect for the fact that Derek, and Julia gave their lives to protect the world."

"I do, but it doesn't change the fact that it should have been handled better. Derek's known for years that the San Francisco house was sitting on that powder keg and did nothing to prevent such an escalation. Did he even warn you all about the forces stirring below that house? It's high time someone takes control of this situation and this house before similar events happen here."

As Alex quietly listened to the attacks on her former mentor, the rage continued to build inside of her. She also realized however, how hard she had been on Nick. Expecting him to fill Derek's shoes. "Like it or not, Nick is the precept right now, and until that is officially overturned I support that."

"This house needs someone with experience who can handle these situations now not someone who has to grow into the role. He's been a member of the Legacy how many years now? And he hasn't grown up yet."

"So what do you suggest," Rachel questioned. "That we make you the new precept?"

"Well no one else here is as qualified. Mrs. Corrigan you are the newst member of the San Francisco house. Ales as we all know has proven to be a liability," he paused to glance at the pained expression on Alex's face as he continued to rehash old wounds. "Shelby is new and Nick is off his rocker. I guarantee there will be changes around here." He reached for the ring Nick left on the table, but Rachel quickly grabbed it first.

"Surely you jest." She hissed, "This isn't a coup d'etat, you can't just overthrow the leader because you don't agree. I may be one of the newest members here, but I know the policies of this organization and for now Nick remains precept." She turned and immediately walked out of the room.

"Why defend him when he even said he doesn't want it?" Ryan shouted, but his objection fell on deaf ears.

After a moment of silence Alex said, "Maybe that's exactly _why_ we should defend him." and walked out of the room.

Shelby was still sitting quietly; she looked rather uncomfortable and quickly dismissed herself when Ryan asked for her opinion.

Upstairs, Rachel nocked on Nick's door. She couldn't help but to take a step back when Nick flung open the door and gave her a death stare.

"I think you forgot this." She said, holding up the ring.

"And I think you misunderstood." His voice was low and solemn. "I don't want it. I'm not Derek. I never can be. I don't _want_ people's lives riding on my decisions."

"I'm not asking you to be anyone but Nick Boyle. Can we talk?"

He paused for a moment, the muscles of his face tightened, he leaned against the door frame waiting for her lecture. She nodded past his shoulder, indicating she wanted to step inside. He threw up his arms and stepped aside. "Maybe you should close the door." Nick looked perturbed but did as she requested.

"Look Nick, I understand I've been hard on you, and so has Alex, but I'm sorry. The house has been under a microscope since everything happened in San Francisco. Ryan was sent here because of his experience to keep an eye on us, and they even tried to bring me into it by asking me about _your_ mental stability. I was hard on you because I know you can do this, and because I thought it would be better coming from me than from the head of the London house. . . Alex doesn't know about any of this, but . . . Derek was very important to her, and to all of us. Nothing about this will ever be easy for any of us but we need to stick together. I have a feeling that won't happen if Ryan takes charge. Alex and I will be more supportive, but we _need_ you at the helm until we can get this sorted out. You said there's something wrong with this whole case, and I agree. There's something wrong with this whole situation, but I haven't figured out exactly what."

"What's wrong is Derek isn't here . . ."

Rachel smiled sympathetically and embraced the young man. "We need you Nick. We need to convince everyone that you're able to handle this position."

"What if I'm not?"

"Derek believed that you were. He usually had a way of being right, even when it wasn't obvious."

"He had a way of being obnoxiously right." Nick looked away, smirking at his memories of the older man's quirks. "But why me?"

"Because you're Nick Boyle, and aside from your own shortcomings, you are passionate about this work and passionate about helping people. You have what it takes whether you realize it or not. You were a SeAL after all. That takes a lot of hard work and dedication."

"Yeah, but I'm more used to taking the orders not giving them." He scuffed.

"I happen to know you're quite good at giving them too. And making you feelings quite well known. You have good instincts, you just need to go with them. Besides, who else? As Ryan pointed out after you left I was the newest member of the San Francisco house, and I don't think London would put it in the hands of Alex . . . although Ryan could have been a bit less rude with his comments. You're the only one of us London would ever accept as a legitimate Precept. So, shall we figure this out?"

Nick closed his eyes for a few seconds, then nodded. He took the ring back but paused before sliding it back on his finger. "What's the plan, shrink?"

Rachel rolled her eyes at the comment, but figured it was at least a step in the right direction.

***It's a little short, but it's something. Hopefully more will be on the way soon!


	5. Chapter 5

**Back again! I'm not writing as fast as I had planned, but summer classes, work, and other projects sometimes get in the way. This one is another shorter chapter, but I'm getting there. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

After Rachel left Nick's room, he sat down at a small desk in the corner. His journal was already out, open to a blank page. He picked up his pen again, remembering what he was about to write after he stormed out and threatened to quit as precept. He sighed, sitting back in his chair and staring at the pen, as if it had a better idea of what he should write. He began thinking about everything was going on, none of it really added up. Without really thinking he began scribbling down events on the paper.

_Derek's dead and we're all falling apart._

_ Philip's gone and that's my fault._

_Nothing about this case makes any sense. At least I'm not the only one to see that. Rachel sees it too._

_The records we're sent don't line up with the information we're getting in the field. The neighbors, the Richardsons, say nothing weird happened there. The police act like they don't know what we're talking about. But, __something_ _has to be going on. Why else would Philip disappear? _

_And that damn caller…_

As if on cue, Nick's phone began dancing across the top of his night stand. He jumped up to grab it before it collapsed to the floor. –Unknown Caller – "Perfect" he smirked, before flipping the phone open and lifting it to his ear. "Hello." His tone was even, he knew the voice that would be on the other end, and he was tired of this game.

"Well, you made it out of the house." The voice also kept an even tone, but Nick thought he heard a hint of relief.

"When are you going to tell me what's going on."

"I can't say much while you're in that house. I'll call back in 15 minutes. Is that enough time to get away?"

Nick paused, always confused as to how this man knew as much as he did. "How. . ."

"15 minutes." The line went dead.

"Great, here I go again." He was hesitant, but opened his bedroom door to get away from the house as the caller instructed. Just as he stepped into the hallway, he saw Alex approaching him.

"Nick, we need to talk." Her voice sounded more apologetic than urgent, so he figured it should be easy to delay the conversation.

"I need to run a quick errand. Can it wait?"

Suddenly, Alex's expression turned very serious. "Running away again?"

Nick shot her a menacing glare. "Look," he opened his cell to check the time, and took a deep breath to calm himself. "I'll be back in half an hour."

Now Rachel was also heading down the hallway toward them. "Where are you off to?"

Nick's expression to her was more pleading, "I _really_ just need to run a quick errand. There's something I need to find, and I'll be back soon."

"You're not trying to get out of here so you can go back to that house and try to find Philip on you own." Alex accused. Nick started to lose his temper, but concentrated on talking to Rachel instead, hoping that something from their prior conversation would convince her to trust him.

"I can't really make it to that house and back in half an hour. Not that I'm _stupid_ enough to try that right now." He managed to keep his emotions in check, glancing down at the clock on his phone again.

Rachel still looked concerned, but she convinced Alex to join her in the library so they could look at some of the records she had collected from town, so that Nick could get away. Nick had barely made it down the street before his phone rang again.

"No more games." He said as soon as he opened it.

"I assure you this is no game. What have you found out about the house? I trust you visited the Richardsons?"

"Yes and they s. . ."

"Nothing weird has ever happened in that house." The caller interjected smoothly.

Nick was sore at being cut off, but furious that the speaker seemed to know everything. "Right."

"And they're right."

"Then what the hell happened to Philip?"

"The answer has nothing to do with the house."

"_You_ seem to have the _answer_ to everything. So why don't you just give it to me so I can get my friend back. You called and said I was in danger. You keep warning me about this danger, but you can't tell me what it is. You seem to know where my friend is and you won't tell me anything about that either. Not to mention you spoke of the Legacy the first time we talked, and you seem to know where I am and what I'm doing."

"Not always. I had no idea you had already been to the house."

"Close enough. When do I get _real_ answers? Something _helpful_? How do you know whatever it is that you know?" Nick paused but there was no answer. "Great."

After another pause, the voice was back again. "Concentrate on things closer to home. You need to trust that Philip's disappearance will be resolved."

"It'll be _resolved_. . . What the hell does that mean?" He heard a click, the call was disconnected.

"Yeah right, get out of the house and we can talk. What the hell did you just tell me that you couldn't have told me _there?_" He yelled at the phone, even though he knew no one would hear him. Then, he threw it into the passenger seat and began to head back to the mansion.

As he walked toward the entrance to the mansion, he paused, dreading anything that could be waiting for him inside. He knew Alex and Rachel would be full of questions, and he didn't have any more answers than he had when he left. Luckily, by the time he met Alex and Rachel in the library, they had become so wrapped up in what they were doing they had almost forgotten about him, so he slipped back to his room to try and get some rest.

By midnight, Nick was exhausted, but yet again couldn't sleep. He was too worried about Philip, but then he remembered what the caller had said. _Concentrate on things closer to home._ He already knew that everything about this case was wrong. _Is London feeding us bad information?_ He thought to himself, _but that's not really close to home_. _No one here had access to the information before I did. _Suddenly, he shot upright. _The tunnels_, _there was a computer in that room. Possibly linked up with our network, but would anyone else know about it, or how to get down there?_ Despite the late hour, he couldn't resist going down to the basement to investigate again.

Nothing had changed in the basement since the last time he was there. He finally reached the room with the computer and began looking for some indication of how or where to turn on the power to the computer. The tunnels were old and the walls were solid, so he figured that any electrical work should be external, and quite obvious. He pulled out the desk so he could see the wall behind it, but the cords from the computer actually ran behind the bookcase next to the desk. The bookcase had quite a few old books on it, but it wasn't very heavy. Unfortunately, it wasn't very sturdy either, so Nick had to remove all of the books before he could attempt to move it in one piece. Once he removed some books from the second shelf, he noticed that the back of the bookcase had a large piece cut out. He removed a few more books and found a breaker. "How clever." He quipped in a flat tone, the breaker was stubborn, but he managed to switch it back on. He turned on the desk lamp and the computer.

As the computer booted up, he realized that it wasn't as "ancient" as he had assumed the first time. The shell was definitely from an older computer, but everything had been upgraded. At least to the standard of the computers in the main mansion. It seemed like he was finally on to something, but his victory was short lived when the password window popped up. There was a slight possibility that the computer was hooked up to the same network, and his password would work, but someone had gone through a great deal of trouble to make this computer look useless, so he was certain none of his passwords would work. After failing to log in a couple of times, he knew his intuition was right, and he doubted anyone who had gone to all of this trouble would just leave the password lying around.

So, he turned his attention back to the bookcase. Even if he couldn't get on the computer, maybe the books would give him some kind of clue. The first book he reached for looked like a legacy journal. That could be the most telling source of information so he flipped it open to examine it. Once he saw the first page, he nearly dropped the book. It contained information about the San Francisco house, all of the members who had worked there in the last few decades, including Winston Rayne and Nick's father. He continued to flip through the pages, eventually finding the one about himself. It seemed like some kind of psychological analysis, along with lists of "probable enemies," and finally "weaknesses." He stopped before reading any further. Something about reading what anyone else thought, especially about his weaknesses that made him suddenly very self-conscious. He continued to flip through the book, past the pages on Rachel, Alex, even one for Kristin, noticing that hers ended with the date of her death. Then there were scribblings about the Testament of Golgotha, and the final incident that brought down their home. Newspaper clippings about a large explosion in the Bay. His breathing was becoming strained, as he continued through the book. It was like a testament to all of the pain he was hoping to forget. The book ended with information about the team coming to the Boston house, but the entries were no longer as detailed. Curiously, nothing at all had been written about either Shelby or Ryan, but the last page held the address to the house where Philip disappeared.

Nick quickly snapped the book shut. He was beginning to wonder what else could possibly go wrong. Part of him wanted to take the journal as evidence, but that'd be a dead giveaway if whoever had been working in the room came back. He shut off the breaker and carefully put the books back where he had found them before quickly making his way back out of the tunnels.


	6. Chapter 6

***Here's another chapter for your reading pleasure. Finally a little longer, and hopefully you enjoy it.

While the rest of the Boston house slept, a dark figure was once again moving through the tunnels. Even without the aid of a flashlight, the figure moved effortlessly through the passages until he came to the file cabinet that blocked the entrance to the secret room. The figure became noticibly agitated to see that the cabinet was moved. It barged into the room, at first nothing looked disturbed, but upon closer investigation of the book case. . . The figure began throwing the books across the room, until coming to the journal and pulling it up close to his face. A growl filled the room, but the figure placed the book inside his black robe, and continued to destroy the entire room. He flung the book case clear across the room where it shattered over the bed before doing the same thing to the computer desk, with the computer still on it. He would leave nothing behind that would help the intruder discover his, or her, identity.

Once the room was in shambles, the figure moved back through the dark tunnels, but instead of turning back toward the basement, he continued down the other tunnel, where Nick had met the first dead end. The figure seemed confident that no one would be able to find _this_ secret door, and even if they did there was only one way to open it. He put both of his hands in front of him inches away from the wall. Suddenly faint blue light emanated from his palms, and the door fitfully slid open. The figure slipped away into the darkness once again while the door closed behind him.

The next morning, Nick met up with Rachel outside the mansion after his morning run.

"Hey Rach, you should have showed up earlier and joined me. What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted to talk to you in private. Did you actually find anything out last night?"

"Well, not when I left. No." Rachel looked intrigued and waited for him to continue. "I . . . couldn't sleep last night so I went down to the basement. There are a bunch of secret passages, just like . . . Anyway, there is a room hidden behind a large file cabinet. I didn't really know about it until I found some blueprints _in_ the file cabinet. . . Philip . . . and I moved the cabinet and inside there was a computer, a bed and a few other things. It was too dark to really see anything and there was no electric to the room, so we gave up. When I went back last night, I found the circuit panel. I couldn't do anything with the computer, but it looks like it's hooked up to our network. I didn't figure out the password. But, one of the books was _quite_ interesting. It looked like a Legacy journal, and it would seem like someone's been rather thoroughly spying on the members of the San Francisco house."

"That would explain a lot."

"Yeah, could be how we're getting mixed information on these cases." Then Nick's face went blank.

"Is everything okay."

It took a few minutes for Nick to answer, "Yeah, when I left the room last night, I tried to leave it just like I found it so . . . whoever . . . wouldn't suspect . . ." he trailed off.

"And?"

"I forgot about the file cabinet. We moved it the first time we were back there. It took both of us, and we never put it back. Even if I'd have thought about it last night, I couldn't have moved it alone."

"So, whoever it is will know."

Nick nodded.

"And maybe it's not just one person."

Nick scoffed a little. "Have you seen what we work with?"

Rachel agreed. "Well, we better get back before anyone really misses us."

"Yeah, and I better hit the shower. I don't think I'll really be missed in this condition." He said, pulling at his sweat drenched shirt.

Once Nick made it to breakfast, everyone except Rachel had finished up.

"Well, look who decided to show up and play with the big kids." Ryan quipped.

Nick just ignored him and asked for a rundown on any developments in their research on the cases.

"All business today?"

Nick bit back the first comment that came to mind, opting for a less offensive. "Yes, it seems like most of us are. How about you Ryan? Will you be working today or just throwing out snide remarks?"

Ryan stood up violently and walked out of the room. Alex sighed and rolled her eyes, "_Men_."

Nick turned around with an offended look on her face. "Excuse me? I thought I was being nice today."

Alex smiled, "Nick Boyle playing nice. . ."" she mused. "Come on you know I didn't mean it, it just seems impossible to get everyone on the same page. _Mostly_ you and Ryan. Not that I'm really complaining about the current situation. I like nice Nick and pissed Ryan." She scowled at the door with the last statement.

"Yes, but he seems a bit more, peeved than usual." Shelby observed. "I mean even more so than _last night_. At least then he was able to maintain some level of professionalism."

The other three jaws in the room nearly hit the floor. "_That's _professionalism?" Rachel asked.

"Well, I mean . . . It's obvious he's passionate about the Legacy and what he feels is best for it, even if he's wrong."

"And you think he's wrong?" Nick asked.

"Geez, I'm the new girl. I don't know. All I know is this whole situation isn't really working out. He proposed what he thought would be the best path forward, even if he wasn't so . . . tactful. But I haven't really seen a lot of tact flying around from anyone." With that Shelby tried to shrink back in her chair, hoping that would be the end of it.

Nick eyed her for a second, "Alright, business. Let's go over what we know. Alex and Rachel, how about what you found last night?"

Alex began talking first. "Well, we went over the records Rachel collected while she was in town. And it just doesn't make sense. We can't seem to access some of this stuff from our network, even though we _should_ be able to."

"Well," Instantly, Shelby looked like she regretted opening her mouth. She shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of everyone in the room again, "uh, well wasn't there a problem at this house before we all arrived?"

"That wouldn't really explain these problems." Nick said.

"But what if someone messed with the system, tried cutting out certain parts of the network. If the house couldn't work efficiently wouldn't it make it easier to bring it down?" Shelby argued.

"Actually," Rachel nodded slowly, "That does make sense."

Nick continued, "Ok so we have a reason why our information might be off. . . What does the new information from town tell us?"

"As I started to tell you yesterday before your phone cut out," Rachel explained, "there was nothing about this young girl's disappearance 10 years ago. You'd think some newspaper, or tabloid or _something_ would have gotten ahold of this information."

"_If _it really happened . . ." Nick said, "but wait. _London_ told us this happened, it didn't come from our database. Did they screw up the whole system?"

"If it was a Legacy member, which is _possible_, he or she could have corrupted the entire thing. Maybe this was meant for the old members of the Boston house." Alex suggested.

Nick looked at Rachel, they knew it probably _wasn't _about the old Boston house, but it wasn't probably something to be revealed until they knew exactly who to trust.

"Okay anyway, what do we know _for sure?_ The girl probably didn't disappear like we were informed. The neighbors corroborate that. They said the family moved West."

Alex's face lit up for a second. "To where, maybe we can track them down there."

"Ohio or Iowa." Nick replied. Alex just looked at him, wondering for a second if he just didn't remember which state the neighbors had said. "What? That's exactly what she said. It narrows it down at least."

"Right. Anything else?" Alex asked.

"She said the father Mark Stears was a salesman."

Rachel nodded, "That backs up what I had already found. He worked for a local company, so he probably didn't transfer, maybe he stayed in the same line though."

"Ok," Nick said, "but we really don't need to spend too much time on them. If the girl never disappeared, there not really important to the case at this point. If we can track them down and verify things, great. Maybe they'll remember something strange that did happen in the house, but at this point it seems doubtful."

"Which means, we basically have nothing." Shelby mumbled. "What about the disappearance that took place a few nights ago?"

"We couldn't verify any of that either." Rachel said, "Either no one is talking, or yet again nothing happened."

"We were being drawn to the house." Nick mumbled without thinking.

"What?" Alex said, while Shelby also perked up in interest.

"It just seems obvious that someone wanted us there. Philip did disappear there, regardless of the misinformation we received. . . If it was all just happenstance what happened to Philip?" Nick explained.

"So it seems 'the who' is just as important as what's going on. We need to find out who's doing this." Alex said.

_Nothing weird has ever happened in that house. . . The answer has nothing to do with the house. . . Concentrate on things closer to home._ The words rang through Nick's mind. He continued, lost in thought. _The caller couldn't possibly know what I found in the tunnels . . . Unless the caller _was_ the person in the tunnels._ _That could explain how he knew so much_.

Rachel and Alex both noticed the light bulb go off in Nick's head, just by the expression on his face. Suddenly, he noticed both their eyes on him, and shook his head, nodding at the young blonde writing on a piece of paper at the end of the table. Shelby looked up, and noticed all eyes on her again. "What now?"

"Any more insight?" Nick asked. She shook her head. "Okay then, since you're the newcomer and possibly less biased than the rest of us, I want you to try to figure out who has been changing the files, and when they've been changed."

"Okay!" The young girl actually looked excited as she left the room, but Nick could see the question on Rachel and Alex's faces. He smirked.

"Come on. While she's digging, we'll be doing the same thing, except she thinks she's got free reign."

Alex shook her head, but was actually impressed with Nick's idea. "You think she's involved."

Nicks' smirk faded and he scoffed. "I think everyone's involved. . . Present company excluded. . . We just have to prove it, and figure out how. And if it happens to be Ryan, and any of us figure that out, how's that going to look after last night?"

"And if Ryan and Shelby are working together?" Rachel asked.

"Guess we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now I have something else to take care of. . . Oh, Alex see what you can do about finding the Stears, at least while everyone's looking, while they're not, double check what Shelby's doing and do your own digging. Rachel, I think you should get Kat out of the house for a while."

Alex started to stand up, but paused "And where will you be?"

"Around." Nick headed to his room first, and then decided to head back to the tunnels. As he started down the first corridor of the tunnels he heard something behind him and turned quickly. "Shit Rach!"

She raised her eyebrow, but laughed. "I thought I told you to take care of Kat."

"And as my first priority I did, as my second priority I'm making sure she doesn't lose anyone else she cares about."

"It could be dangerous down here."

"Lucky I have you to protect me."

He knew arguing wasn't going to help so they continued to the room he had already told her about. He gasped as she shined the flashlight into the room.

"Wow," Rachel added. "I take it this is _not _how you left it?"

"Not at all."

"I think you were discovered."

"Really? . . . I guess this means they probably won't be back anytime soon." He knelt down to sort through the books. "The journal's gone."

"And the computer's trashed."

Nick, sighed and rubbed his neck. "There goes my theory," he mumbled.

"Theory? Up at the breakfast table?"

"Yeah . . ." Nick suddenly realized he hadn't yet been _completely_ open with her about everything over the last few days. "There's a small part of the story I've left out."

Rachel looked annoyed, but not really surprised. "I've been getting phone calls. It's a man's voice and he seems to know what's going on here. He called and told me to get out of that house. He knew what we'd find out about that house."

"And you think he knows a lot more than he's telling you?"

"He knows about the Legacy."

The room was silent for a few minutes. "Are you _sure_ he's on our side?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not _sure_ of anything, but I thought this might be how he's keeping tabs. For a minute it fit."

"It still may."

Nick nodded and thought for a second. "But he told me the problem was here. Why would he do that if he didn't want me looking here?"

***As always comments are welcome, but as long as you're reading I'll continue my work. That's not to say I might not work a little harder if I'm pushed to do so. ;)


	7. Chapter 7

Rachel and Nick headed to the control room. Just before they reached the entrance, Nick's phone rang. –Unknown Caller– "That's him. Right on time as usual" He whispered.

Rachel nodded for him to go take it. "I'll see what's up with everyone else."

Nick turned and answered the phone. "Hello again."

"Go to the public library." The phone call ended.

"Okay, no problem." Nick rolled his eyes and turned back to the front door of the mansion.

"Running out again?" Nick heard a familiar voice from behind him.

"And here I thought you had already left."

"You know we could get a lot more done if you'd stay in one place and _help _us with the investigation."

"You know we could get a lot more done if _you'd do the work instead of running your mouth_. If I leave it's because I have something important to do. Something that might help the case, unlike your snide remarks."

"And of course it all has to be done alone? I thought we were supposed to work as a team."

"You're the one making that difficult right now. A _team_ trusts each other, and sometimes yes the members do have to work alone." Nick turned toward the door again.

"You're not going out alone again."

"Well I'm certainly not taking you!" Nick walked out slamming the door behind him. _Ok so maybe the door slam was a childish touch_ he thought and then smirked.

By the time Nick pulled up to the library, he knew he was being followed. _Maybe he'll see the library and go on his merry way_. The car came closer, parking right behind Nick's Mustang. He put his hands on the top of the car, attempting to steady his anger. "What a coincidence." He remarked as Ryan stepped out of his car.

"Indeed. I was heading here to see if I could dig up my own information."

"Well, I wish you the best. I'm sure we'll be sitting at different tables."

"Maybe."

Nick shook his head as Ryan walked by him and up to the front door of the library where he paused. As Nick walked up behind him, Ryan opened the door and ushered him in with a fake smile.

Inside, Nick looked around. It wasn't the largest library in Boston, but it was the closest and the caller hadn't really been specific, as always. He walked up to the circulation desk and asked where the newspaper microfilms were kept. It was at least somewhere to start while he tried to figure out what to do next. Ryan followed him to the microfilm stations, and took a seat at a table nearby. Nick started to go through the films for a mostly relevant timeframe, hoping Ryan wouldn't notice. His phone vibrated again, just once. He opened it to see a text message, and almost laughed out loud. _Getting more high tech by the minute_. "Go to the microfilm printing station." _Great._ He stood up and walked over to the printer. Ryan was of course on his trail. Nick closed his eyes, afraid of what was going to come up for Ryan to see. It was just a regular newspaper article.

"Anything interesting?" Ryan asked.

"You know we could accomplish so much more if you spent less time looking over my shoulder."

"From where I stand that's exactly what you need. Any why is that such a problem? Hiding something?"

"Oh, I'm hiding something all right." Nick mumbled under his breath as he grabbed the paper back from Ryan. "If you don't mind pulling your own weight Ryan, that'd be great." He said casually as he returned to his seat. Again, his phone vibrated. This time it was just a series of numbers. He rolled his eyes and tried to figure it out while still looking like he was going through the newspapers. _Okay, random news article, random numbers, so some kind of code_ . . . He was very unamused.

It took him about 15 minutes to crack the code, it actually would have been faster if he wasn't trying to look like he was reading the paper. He deleted the messages from his phone and started to walk toward Ryan, "Want to join me in the restroom as well, or maybe you can just check my work while I'm gone." He motioned toward the machine and handed Ryan the paper. "Oh, and so you don't worry that I can't find my way home. . ." He threw his keys on the table as well.

Ryan kept his face stern, but quickly snatched up the paper as he watched Nick walk toward the restrooms. Nick waited a few moments after he turned down the hallway to see if Ryan would really follow him. When he was convinced he hadn't he looked over at the heater next to the bathroom door, and reached under it. An electronic key fob. _And now to get out of here without Ryan seeing me._ He carefully peaked around the corner. Luckily, Ryan had sat down to watch Nick at the microfilm reader, not in the bathroom, so Nick carefully slipped out and made it out the door. He pushed the button on the key fob, trying to figure out which car it went to. He finally found a small Lexus parked at the end of the parking lot and climbed in. "I definitely won't be trading in for this anytime soon," he mumbled. The key was already in the ignition. "Well that's handy, but where am I supposed to go." He paused for a few minutes, waiting for his phone to ring again, but nothing. He turned on the car.

"Continue to last entered destination?" He heard a female voice and noticed a GPS on the dash.

"Yeah, okay." He pushed the button to continue. "I really don't think I belong in this movie." He mumbled again, as he began to follow the directions on the GPS. After about 20 minutes of driving, during which Nick continually questioned his sanity for following the directions, with no clue about where he was going, and no one else who even knew where he was or what he was doing at the moment, the female voice started giving very weird directions.

"Make legal U-turn whenever possible."

"What? You've gotta be kidding me?" He pulled over and checked the directions on the GPS which actually had him doubling back twice before reaching his final destination. "Paranoid? . . . Yeah, why didn't I just check the directions to begin with? Because you're impulsive . . . That's what Derek would have said. Geez, I'm talking to myself more and more regularly. Aaaand even answering my own questions . . ." He shook his head and continued following the directions on the GPS. After another half an hour of driving, Nick arrived at a small motel. "Niiiice." He remarked sarcastically as he started to get out of the car, his phone began ringing again.

"Well it'll be nice to hear another voice again, besides my own and the stupid GPS."

" . . . You've arrived?"

"How'd you know? Maybe you can step outside and wave?"

"There's a key in the glove box." The line went dead again.

"This is getting so old." He moaned as he leaned over to get the key out. "Good old room 119." He scanned the door numbers and headed toward the room in the corner. He paused as he began to open the door, thinking about how this seemed like a scene out of a bad horror movie, but continued anyway. The room was filled with cardboard boxes. He looked around for a few minutes and then heard another phone ringing. He looked at the phone on the nightstand, but that wasn't it. There was another cell phone laying on the pillow of the bed.

"Hello?"

"You'll find what you need in this room."

"You really couldn't have made this any more convenient could you?"

"This is as good as it gets. Since when is anything convenient for the Legacy?"

"Yeah."

"Stay strong Nick." The line went dead again.

Nick spent the next few hours sifting through the papers, and Legacy journals in the boxes. He was beyond wondering how anyone got their hands on these things, but he did wonder how on earth he was supposed to get through all of this information on his own. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his phone vibrate off the table and skitter across the carpeted floor.

He quickly picked it up, "Hello?"

"Where on earth have you been?" Rachel's voice greeted him sternly.

"Oh, yeah, that's a really long story."

"I'm sure. Ryan said you disappeared from the library. What were the two of you doing there?"

"I was, uh . . . you know, pretending to be Sherlock Holmes."

"Okaaaay, what was _Ryan _ doing there?"

"Following me."

"Did you meet someone? Where'd you go without your car?"

"No, no one else. Just another car. He left me a car with a GPS, aaaand I'm here going through boxes and boxes of information."

"Who's he and where's here?"

"I don't know, the caller. And, just an old motel outside of town." Nick sat on the bed and continued to rifle through the journals and files while he talked.

"And what should I tell the others?"

"I don't know Rach . . ." Then something caught his eye, "hang on." He grabbed the next journal out of the box he was going through. ". . . It's Ryan's old journal."

"And?"

"I don't know, I haven't mastered the read 200 pages in 20 seconds technique. I'll need some time."

"Well at least I can count on one thing. . . Nick Boyle's sarcasm."

"You know it Rach. I'll never let you down." The words were almost monotone as he tried to skim through the journal at the same time. Then, he sighed heavily. "There's no way I can get through all of this stuff. And I can't bring it back because it might fall into the wrong hands. Couldn't he just bookmark the important things?"

"And what should I tell everyone? About you?"

"Do they know you're talking to me?"

"No."

"Then tell them . . ." he paused, then finished quickly. "You don't know anything. I have a bed here. If this is where we're going to find the answers, this is where I need to be."

"Oh, what's the deal with the newspaper article you printed?"

"I didn't, it was coded instructions, that's all." His tone was still dry as he read through Ryan's journal, but he noticed Rachel was silent on the other end. "What?"

"Did you actually read it?"

"No, not much of it, why?"

"It's about Ryan's father. How he died."

"Shit! No wonder he sat there staring at it after I walked away." He finally looked up from the journal and closed his eyes rubbing his forehead with his free hand.

"He was pretty upset about it when he got back. Said you did it on purpose. I didn't think you would though, considering . . ."

"What? . . . My dad?" He asked, going back to the journal, before he thought about it too much.

"Yes, the circumstances surrounding the death seem quite similar. Ryan was also a teenager when it happened."

"Yeah, he writes about it in his journal. The reason he joined the Legacy . . . Alright, I better get crackin' on all of this. Call me if anything comes up, but don't let _anyone_ know that you know where I am."


	8. Chapter 8

***New Chapter! Thanks for the Reviews on the last chapter, it motivated me to get this one done and get it uploaded!

After hours of going over the journals and files, Nick still wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to be finding. Ryan's journal was interesting, but nothing gave him an indication as to what was currently going on. Nick looked at the clock, it was almost 3 am and his supply of caffeine was no longer existent. He tried to put off sleep for a while longer to finish at least a few more pages, but the next thing he knew it was nearly 10 am and he was waking up with a file scattered across the bed and floor.

"Man, I haven't slept this late in . . ." He stretched and went to the bathroom to freshen up. _Stay strong Nick_ the words echoed in his head, like he was remembering a dream. Then, he remembered the scrap of paper in his journal. Those were the words written on it, but that's also what that caller said last night. It was too much at this point to be a coincidence. He heard his phone ringing in the next room and expected to see that it was the unknown caller again, but it was Rachel.

"Hey Rach."

"Ryan's leaving the Legacy." Rachel said shortly.

"What? I figured with my disappearance, he'd be putting in a bid to be precept again." Despite feeling bad for the whole newspaper article incident, Nick was still obviously spiteful toward Ryan.

"Whatever happened yesterday, maybe the article . . . I 'm not sure, but it hit him really hard. He's on the phone with Mr. Endres right now," she explained.

Nick couldn't find any words to respond, he just rubbed his eyes and sat down on the bed.

"Nick?"

"Yeah?" he said, exhaustion evident in his voice.

"What'd _you_ find?"

"I don't know. I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase. I mean I'm here going through a bunch of files and journals, that don't really seem connected while the rest of you are back at the house, dealing with who knows what. . ."

"What about Ryan's journal?"

"I don't know, seemed pretty run-of-the-mill as Legacy journals go. Seems like he was really always searching for what happened to his father."

"Do you still think he could be a suspect?"

"I don't know . . . I mean, we all know how the quest for answers can take you to some pretty dark places. How far is someone really willing to go to find out what they need to know?"

"Are you talking about Ryan or yourself?"

"Maybe all of us? What if this caller just wants me out of the house?"

"I thought you were sure he's one of the good guys?"

"Hell, Rach, right now I'm not sure I'm one of the good guys. . . He's definitely been in the house." Rachel started to say something, but then wasn't sure exactly which question to ask. "He left a note in my _journal_, I didn't even know what to think of it at the time, but it seemed menial, so I didn't really think about it much. . . with everything else going on. And something he said yesterday, reminded me of the note."

"Maybe. . ."

Nick cut her off, expecting what she'd say. "Don't say coincidence. Right now . . . none of this can come down to coincidence anymore."

"So if we assume that we're being deliberately set up. We still don't know their motivation, their end goal, or even have the remotest idea who they are."

"Someone is trying to take down the Legacy, just like the Boston house, and nearly the San Francisco house. We're lucky to have gotten out of there. Has anyone come up with anything on your end?"

"Not really."

"So we've spent how long now just chasing our tails." Nick froze when he heard a knock on the motel door. "Call me back later," he said immediately hanging up the phone.

Rachel hat sensed the tension in the young man's voice just before he hung up, and she wasn't sure but she thought she heard someone knocking on his door. "Nick? . . . _Nick?_" She tried dialing his number again, but he didn't answer. "Come on Nick, I don't have a good feeling about this."

"I thought you didn't know where he was?" She heard another familiar male voice behind her. Her head dropped.

"That's why I was trying to get ahold of him again."

Ryan nodded but kept locked eyes with her. "And who were you talking to before?" Rachel couldn't even think of a reasonable explanation, and she had no idea how long he was standing there listening. She knew she'd kept an eye on her surroundings for most of the conversation but . . .

"Yeah, I heard enough to _know_ you were talking to Nick. What the hell is going on here? If you're trying to take down this whole organization . . . well, I havent' figured out if you just suck at your job or you're really good at it. I mean within days the house is already 2 members, or should I say 3 members down." He tilted his head. Rachel blinked a few times, still unable to find words, so Ryan turned to leave.

"Wait. You think _we're _trying to take down this organization? And you're just going to turn your back and let it happen, just like that?"

Ryan shrugged, "Normally no, but . . . I wonder at this point . . ."

"What do you mean?" Rachel's body language relaxed, as she tried to learn more.

"Why should I explain? And why do you care? Aren't I giving you what you want? Although I must know, because I haven't figured this part out . . . Is Nick in on it too, or are you just trying to drive him mad?"

Rachel continued to stare at him with a confused expression, but Ryan laughed. "Right. Guess I'll see you around then."

"Ryan, wait! Are you really seriously convinced that I've joined with the dark side? You think I would put my daughter and the people I love through that?"

"No, isn't that the reason people normally do it? To '_save_' the ones they love?"

"Would you have done it to save your father?"

Ryan exploded, "That has nothing to do with this situation. If you're bringing it up to try to win me over to your side, you had better think again. My father battled evil. Yes I once took up this job just to find out who or _what_ killed my father, but hell if I'll join the side of those who did!"

"We're not the enemy. I wish I knew of a good way to convince you of that, but"

Ryan scoffed. "There is no way."

"Did you know Nick's father was attacked and killed in the same manner as you own?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" Ryan wearily turned back to face Rachel.

"It almost got Nick too."

"And that's supposed to convince me of what? Maybe your house turned to save him." He huffed, "honorable enough I guess . . . if that's how you'd like to think of it."

"We haven't turned. Derek gave his life to protect the world from the darkside, and any of us would do the same. That's why we're here."

"Yes, one can imagine why Derek was the only one who died."

The venemous words hit Rachel like a brick, but she tried to stay focused. "Okay, so you can spin anything I say any way you want to, but it doesn't change the facts."

"And what are the _facts_?"

"That we want to get Philip back and figure out what's really going on here. . . Look Ryan, you can believe me or not, that's your decision. But, despite all of our disagreements, if you're interested in doing what's right and saving a man's life . . . and possibly his soul. We could really use your help. What've you really got to lose now?

"My own life, my soul?" Ryan yelled.

"Isn't that what we put on the line every day at the Legacy? I'm not asking for anything more than your help, and if you change your mind you can leave at any time."

Ryan scoffed, "Since when do any of you want me on the team?"

Rachel backed down, looking defeated at her own memory of recent events with Ryan. "Since I'm sure you're really on our side. It seemed more like _you_ came here with the intent to break _us_ up. Don't you understand we were both doing the same thing? Someone is trying to turn us against each other and we were both willing to do whatever possible to keep that from happening and to keep the Legacy intact."

"Fine. What do you want me to do." Ryan also relaxed slightly. "Keep in mind I'm only considering it."

"Good enough. First keep this a secret. As long as whoever's trying to break up this house thinks the plan is successful, maybe we'll be better off."

"But won't _whoever_ know that Nick's disappearance wasn't part of the plan?"

"Maybe, or maybe they'll assume he couldn't take it anymore. Either way, to them, he's out of the picture."

"Fine. And?"

"And, there's got to be a better way of figuring out what's going on, who's misleading us." Rachel suggested.

Ryan shook his head, "Are you kidding, everything in our network is a dead end!"

"So you've noticed."

"I'm not an idiot. I've noticed since we showed up that something seems to be wrong with the network, but I was hoping to get to the bottom of it. I thought I _had _gotten to the bottom of it."

***That's it for now. If I know people are interested and reading I'll write more (so the more reviews, the more motivated I'll be to get it done sooner).


End file.
